Hey everyone....

I'm having some problems with the pcmcia-cs package. It seems that whenever I insert a card, I get one high beep and my computer (a Compaq Armada E500) hangs. I am currently using CRUX linux 0.92 with the newest pcmcia-cs. I have successfully used my network card and laptop on a barebones slackware install, so I am sure that the hardware is fine and it is possible to get it to work. I believe it must be a config problem (possibly a device conflict, given the symptoms, so I may need some excludes). Does anyone have a similar configuration or some general pcmcia tips? I run rc.pcmcia from rc.multi script. I do not have apmd running (in fact I am only running crond and inetd at the moment since this is a new install). Thanks for any help.

-Joe

This one sounds weird.

I've never had to install Linux on a Paq just yet, so congrats, I've heard it can be a pain. I've never had a machine lock up on me... but that first beep is pcmcia_core detecting the card, and then the hang is probably coming from cardmgr flipping out and eating all of your resources. Aside from trying lspci, taking the model of your pcmcia bus and plugging it into www.google.com/linux for common problems, the only voodoo I could recommend is dropping a few steps back in the Hind's cs packages.

Any reason you don't want to bother with in-kernel pcmcia? Offhand, are you sure you don't have both compiled and running and they're not just fighting it out?

I haven't gotten yenta_socket crap to work but once, so I agree, pcmcia-cs until it just doesn't get worked on anymore.

Cheers,

Finegan

Actually I had pcmcia in the kernel and also the pcmcia-cs running at one point, and I got no beeps, but no lockup. So at least I'm getting somewhere I guess. Only it didn't lock up before.

I need pcmcia-cs instead of kernel support because I have a 3com 3ccfe575ct, which uses the 3c575_cb + cb_enabler modules. I also run a ORiNOCO wireless card (wavelan2_cs), but I haven't messed with that yet.

I do notice that when I boot with the 3com card in, I see cardmgr display a message like "ifconfig eth0 down" for some reason, and that's the last thing I get. It seems like once cardmgr starts, it shuts down the network. I actually don't have any aliases for eth0 set at the moment, could that be the problem?

As far as the linux-on-compaq goes, I think it's a really good machine, and it runs very well. I'm just trying to get as basic as I can and do as much myself as possible. I've done LFS, but now I want something that I can install and configure in a short amount of time, so I chose CRUX. Slackware ran great, though, none of this nonsense Thanks again for the help...

-Joe

This is an odd one.

To diagnose whether its cardmgr locking the machine, make sure all eth devices are ifconfig down and then try the wavelan card. Also, if you've got the newest pcmcia-cs package, you may want to start using the orinoco driver set. They kick the pants off of the wavelan drivers, which are the production drivers from the card manufacturer. Check to see if you've got the hermes.o, orinoco.o, and orinoco_cs.o modules. If so, all you need to do to get them to work is to get a copy of the hermes.conf file from ahlf-way down the page here, and just copy it into /etc/pcmcia.

Also I assume you're up with the newest wireless_tools packages from Jean Tourill...damn I always butcher her name, which are available from the same source above. If the orinoco card insmods without bugging the machine, then it isn't the cardmgr, but probably something buggy with the config for the 3Com. You could poke through /etc/pcmcia/config and see what settings cardmgr is giving it upon stab. Its probably being assigned some memory allocation that it shouldn't be allowed to and bombing the kernel. Also, the most conspicuous problem with some of the pcmcia cards is that pcmcia_core will try to assign them an eth device that the kernel has already allocated and lock up the whole mess. Unless you change /etc/pcmcia/network.opts, cardmgr won't give the card any settings after the modules are loaded, so configuration probably isn't it. You haven't gotten that far because it locks right after card insertion.

Basically, if insertion of the orinoco doesn't lock the machine then the pcmcia modules and cardmgr are fine, its a config file. If it locks no matter what... shoot I'm lost, there's no real way to see dmesg output or a log in order to debug it.

Luck,

Finegan

Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try right away. I'm actually hoping both card lock up, then at least I know I didn't break anything Thanks again...

Sure enough, the WaveLAN card works.. or the ORiNOCO card... Whatever it is. It says WaveLAN Turbo 11 Mb Gold on it. I have gotten it working before, but it'd be nice to know what it's called now. It's definitely something to do with the 3Com card. For some reason it just works in Slackware (and every other distro). There must be something I'm missing...

2 things:

1, I'm helping another guy in Malaysia oddly enough, with a Compaq E700. He experienced the exact same lock and death on card insertion, but it didn't happen when X wasn't running. Why? Beats the heck out of me...

2, Some back history: Until the most recent series of Prism2 intersil cards, pretty much everything wireless and 802.11 (there were some pre IEEE standards packet radio stuff, mostly Seimens) ran off of Lucent chipsets. Lucent spun off their wireless card shop into a company poorly named Orinoco. The original Driver package was wvlan_cs, and oddly enough, with a Gold card and the old drivers, which I'm pretty sure RH loaded by default, you can tweak just about every aspect of that card's functioning with the wireless tools. "lsmod" will list all of the currently active drivers, but if it works it works, there's no need to jump up a driver set unless you need some of the functionality that comes with the Orinoco_cs stuff.

Cheers,

Finegan

Yeah, I did a lot of reading today and tried to learn all about it. It helps to know what I'm dealing with, hehe... I'm glad that someone else has the problem, I'm thinking it's something that can easily be corrected. The X thing makes me wary though. I feel like I'm very close to solving this. Right now I'm playing with the wireless more, but I will continue to work on the nic problem. Is the other guy running CRUX by any chance? Either way, can you possibly get me in touch with him so that we can compare notes? Thanks...

-Joe

He's running RedHat 7.2, which uses in-kernel pcmcia.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=16200

Cheers,

Finegan